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NPD hardware sales

The seventh generation began on November 2005 with the release of the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 was plagued by severe stock shortages. The gray market was riddled with Xbox 360 selling on Ebay for many months after its release. As a result, it only managed 607,000 in 2005. Microsoft met demand around March 2006.[1]With a one year lead on the other consoles, the Xbox 360 gained a 2,892,000 advantage before the mid-November release of the Wii and PlayStation 3 (worldwide, the advantage was around 10 million). The Wii and PS3 releases were met with great demand. Sony experienced a blue laser diode shortage which led to only ~200,000 units being available at launch.[2] Although supply met demand in January 2007 for the PS3[3], the Wii surprisingly continued with shortages well into 2007. This shortage would continue until 2009, nearly three years after its release.

After the initial launch hype subdued, one of the biggest stories of 2007 was the subpar sales of the PlayStation 3. The high price, uncertainty of the Blu-ray Disc format, and low availability of exclusive video games turned people away from the system. It reached a low point of 82,000 in April and May. Altogether, it sold 1.3 million less in its first full year than the Xbox 360's debut year. Not all was doom diet pills and gloom for Sony however. Its PlayStation 2 console was virtually tied with the Xbox 360 in 2007 with nearly 4.5 million units sold. The Xbox 360 had its first price cut in the United States on August 2007, in preparation of Halo 3. The PS3 appeared to do a permananent price cut on its 60GB model, but it later turned out it was only to clear out hardware in preparation for a new 80GB model. The first true price cut was in October 2007 when they sliced $100 off.

In 2008, the PlayStation 3 picked up speed largely due to the new $499 price cut. For the most part of 2008, Sony's system outsold the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 reclaimed the yearly lead after its own price cut on September 2008 and stellar holiday sales. Both saw huge sales bumps in April with the release of Grand Theft Auto IV. The Wii moved an astounding 700k+ units twice, which is virtually unheard of for a non-holiday month. This was hint of the record-breaking 2 million November month for Wii.

While it seems clear that the Wii will be the United States console leader, second place is still open as of January 2009, although it appears PS3's ~7 million deficit will be hard to overcome. This scenario is in stark contrast to some of the analyst forecasts made weight loss pills by market research firms at the beginning of the generation.

In the first 18 months of release, the Wii sold over 50 million games, not including the bundled Wii Sports or Virtual Console games. Not only does this best the sales of this generation's competitors, but it is larger than the extremely successful PlayStation 2, which had 42 million. About 8 million units separated the Xbox 360 and PS3; the former had 28 million while the latter had 20 million.[5]

Xbox 360 leads total software sales as of October 2008. Over 94 million games have been sold for Microsoft's console. Wii and the PS3, released a year later, are at 73 million and 30 million respectively.[6][7] Nintendo's first party efforts like Mario Kart Wii and Wii Fit have dominated the Wii gaming scene, possibly alienating some decent 3rd-party games and causing a third-party software problem. According to NPD sales figures, the Xbox 360 has generated more revenue at retail for third-party publishers than the PS3 and Wii combined this generation, a very remarkable feat.[8]

In addition, the attach rate for the Xbox 360 is at a staggering 8.1 games per console. This is far greater than the 5.5 software tie ratio for Wii and 5.3 for PS3.[9][10]